My name is Marissa Anderson, and I have been called to serve in the Philippines Quezon City mission. I enter the Provo MTC on January 29, 2014. Please take part in my journey as my mom will be posting weekly updates, emails, and pictures.

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

So Long, Farewell!

Good
morning, brothers and sisters. I am so excited to speak to you today. Last time
I was up here giving a talk it was when Megan Betillyon spoke who is currently
serving in the Philippines. Little did I know that only 6 months later, I would
be standing in front of you today, called as well to serve in the Philippines.
I have been called to serve in the Philippines Quezon City mission and I could
not be more excited. I will be entering the Provo MTC on January 29th
and will be learning the crazy language of Tagalog.

Just
a few fun facts about the Philippines: as of last week there were 675,166
members of the church, 1,134 congregations, 17 missions, and 2 temples. The
gospel is truly booming over there and the people are ready to hear the word.
The climate is quite tropical with temperatures ranging from a low of 65* to
95*, plus humidity. From about June to November is considered “Typhoon” season
and it rains quite a bit, and it is not uncommon to be walking with water up
past your ankles. For this reason, I get to wear these cute things called
“Crocs” with my skirts and dresses.. Yay!

The
food consists of rice, fish, rice, tropical fruits, rice, noodles, roasted pig,
and rice. There are also some lovely delicacies, one of which is called
“Balut”, a fertilized, steamed duck egg. Just as I did when I was in India, I
hope to try every single food placed in front of me, although it may come at a
cost.

Deciding what I would speak on today
was extremely difficult for me, and I prayed much to know what I was to say.
After much contemplation, and writing 4 different talks, the message I am going
to share with you all today is one of love, but not just any love- God’s
unconditional love for all of his children.

As direct
children of God, we have the ability to experience the most pure form of love
that anyone could ever begin to fathom. As we look to Christ and build a
relationship with him, we begin to realize that we are the greatest of all of God’s creation; we were created in
His image.

How much exactly does
God love us? President Bednar stated, “Think of
the purest, most all-consuming love you can imagine. Now multiply that love by
an infinite amount—that is the measure of God’s love for you.7

God does not look on the
outward appearance.8I believe that He doesn’t
care one bit if we live in a castle or a cottage, if we are handsome or homely,
if we are famous or forgotten. Though we are incomplete, God loves us
completely. Though we are imperfect, He loves us perfectly. Though we may feel
lost and without compass, God’s love encompasses us completely.

He loves us because He is
filled with an infinite measure of holy, pure, and indescribable love. We are
important to God not because of our résumé but because we are His children. He
loves every one of us, even those who are flawed, rejected, awkward, sorrowful,
or broken. God’s love is so great that He loves even the proud, the selfish,
the arrogant, and the wicked.

What this means is that,
regardless of our current state, there is hope for us. No matter our distress,
no matter our sorrow, no matter our mistakes, our infinitely compassionate
Heavenly Father desires that we draw near to Him so that He can draw near to
us.”

Heavenly
Father loves us so much, whether or not we think we deserve it. At times we may
feel that he has forgotten us, or that we are unimportant to Him. Trials and
adversities prevail and we begin to wonder if there is anyone out there who
really does care for us. We may think to ourselves, “If God really does love
me, wouldn’t he take away my burdens?” I stand here before you today and bear
you my testimony that because our Heavenly Father loves us so much, he allows
us to go through difficult things. This may sound contradictory to our earthly
minds, but we must remember that without adversity and afflictions, we would in
nowise be able to return to our Father in Heaven. Isn’t that our ultimate goal,
to return and live with him? Through hardship we have the opportunity to build
our faith in Christ and develop the relationship we need to be able to live
again in God’s presence.

President Monson stated, “At times there
appears to be no light at the tunnel’s end—no dawn to break the night’s
darkness. … We feel abandoned, heartbroken, alone. If you find yourself in such
a situation, I plead with you to turn to our Heavenly Father in faith. He will
lift you and guide you. He will not always take your afflictions from you, but
He will comfort and lead you with love through whatever storm you face.”

At times we may feel unworthy of God’s
love due to transgressions, improper use of our free agency, or a distance we
have created between us and the Lord. No matter the reason that our
relationship with the Lord is not where we would desire it to be, His arms are
always open. It is never too late for us to come unto the Lord and partake of
his blessings. He loves us more than we can even begin to comprehend, and
because of this he gives us opportunity after opportunity to feel His love and
follow Him.

President
Holland stated, “However late you think you are, however many chances you think
you have missed, however many mistakes you feel you have made or talents you
think you don’t have, or distance from home and family and God you feel you
have traveled, I testify that you have not traveled beyond the reach of
divine love. It is not possible for you to sink lower than the infinite light
of Christ’s Atonement.

Whether you are not yet
of our faith or were once with us and have not remained, there is nothing in
either case you have done that cannot be undone. There is no problem which you
cannot overcome. There is no dream that in the unfolding of time and eternity
cannot yet be realized. Even if you feel you are the lost and last laborer of
the eleventh hour, the Lord of the vineyard still stands beckoning. “Come to
the throne of grace, and fall at the feet of the Holy One of Israel. Come and
feast “without money and without price” at the table of the Lord. . . .”

To
those of you who have been blessed by the gospel for many years because you
were fortunate enough to find it early, and to those of you who have come to
the gospel by stages and phases later, and finally to those of you—member or
not yet member—who may still be hanging back, to each of you, one and all, I
testify of the renewing power of God’s love and the miracle of His grace. His
concern is for the faith at which you finally arrive, not the hour of the day
in which you got there.

So if you have made
covenants, keep them. If you haven’t made them, make them. If you have made
them and broken them, repent and repair them. It is never too late so
long as the Master of the vineyard says there is time.”

In D&C 18 we read, “The worth of
souls in great in the sight of God.” We have all read this scripture over and
over again, but do we really understand what this simple phrase means? At times
we may feel unimportant and insignificant in the big scheme of things,
wondering if our tiny contributions even matter, and how God’s love for each of
his children is even possible. When these thoughts begin to enter our minds, we
must remember that because Heavenly Father loves us so much,
he gave us the most amazing gift we could ever comprehend. He provided a
Savior, even Jesus Christ, as the only means to return to live in God’s
presence. There is no greater manifestation of God’s love for his children than
allowing his Only Begotten in the flesh to suffer all the pains and sorrows of
the world, so that we may have the opportunity to live again with Him, and live
as He lives.

In
D&C 18:10-11 we read “For, behold, the Lord your
Redeemer suffered death in the flesh; wherefore he suffered the pain of all men, that all men might repent and come unto him.”

The impact of this statement
that Christ suffered “the pain of all men,” here given by the Lord to emphasize
his high appraisal of the worth of human souls, is sharpened by the realization
of the intensity of that suffering. If we all were not of worth, it would have
been much easier to forgo the suffering of the atonement and simply have no way
back to live with God. But Christ performed the atonement because he loves you,
he loves me, and he loves our Father in Heaven.

President Monson shared a
short story entitled, “Sugar Beets and the Worth of a Soul” that I would like
to relay on today. He explained, “Many years ago, Bishop Marvin O. Ashton,
who served as a counselor in the Presiding Bishopric, gave an illustration I’d
like to share with you. Picture with me, if you will, a farmer driving a large
open-bed truck filled with sugar beets en route to the sugar refinery. As the
farmer drives along a bumpy dirt road, some of the sugar beets bounce from the
truck and are strewn along the roadside. When he realizes he has lost some of
the beets, he instructs his helpers, “There’s just as much sugar in those which
have slipped off. Let’s go back and get them!”

In my application of
this illustration, the sugar beets represent the members of this Church for
whom we are called as leaders and have responsibility; and those that have
fallen out of the truck represent men and women, youth and children who, for
whatever reason, have fallen from the path of activity. Paraphrasing the
farmer’s comments concerning the sugar beets, I say of these souls, precious to
our Father and our Master: “There’s just as much value in those who have
slipped off. Let’s go back and get them!”

Right now, today, some
of them are caught in the current of popular opinion. Others are torn by the
tide of turbulent times. Yet others are drawn down and drowned in the whirlpool
of sin.

This need not be. We have the doctrines
of truth. We have the programs. We have the people. We have the power. Our
mission is more than meetings. Our service is to save souls.”

Now
that we understand the worth of souls and the love God has for every single one
of us, what must we do to carry out this principle? The answer is simple: love
others, serve them, and lead them to Christ’s open arms. What better way to do
this than by missionary work!

President
Monson, in a Priesthood Session of conference, related this example:

Back in the year 1961,
a worldwide conference was held for mission presidents, and every mission
president in the Church was brought to Salt Lake City for those meetings. I
came to Salt Lake City from my mission in Toronto, Canada.

In one particular
meeting, N. Eldon Tanner, who was then an Assistant to the Quorum of the
Twelve, had just returned from his initial experience of presiding over the
missions in Great Britain and Western Europe. He told of a missionary who had
been the most successful missionary whom he had met in all of the interviews he
had conducted. He said that as he interviewed that missionary, he said to him,
“I suppose that all of the people whom you baptized came into the Church by way
of referrals.”

The young man answered,
“No, we found them all by tracting.”

Brother Tanner asked
him what was different about his approach—why he had such phenomenal success
when others didn’t. The young man said that he attempted to baptize every
person whom he met. He said that if he knocked on the door and saw a man
smoking a cigar and dressed in old clothes and seemingly uninterested in
anything—particularly religion—the missionary would picture in his own mind
what that man would look like under a different set of circumstances. In his
mind he would look at him as clean-shaven and wearing a white shirt and white
trousers. And the missionary could see himself leading that man into the waters
of baptism. He said, “When I look at someone that way, I have the
capacity to bear my testimony to him in a way that can touch his heart.

We have the responsibility to look at our
friends, our associates, our neighbors this way. When we view them from the
eyes of God and try to imagine the love He has for them, no matter their
circumstances or their lifestyle, and truly feel of each individual’s worth,
this is when changes of hearts occur. We must develop the capacity to see
others not as they are at present, but as they may become.”

I
invite each and everyone one of you, to develop the capacity to see others not
as they are at present but as they may become when they receive a testimony of
the truth. View others from the perspective of the Lord and share your
testimony with them. We know that we don’t need a name tag to be a missionary,
and I invite you share God’s love with everyone around you, in word and deed.

“Remember that ‘the worth of souls is great in
the sight of God,’ and if we should labor all our days and bring save it be one
soul unto Him, how great shall be our joy with Him in the kingdom of our
Father. And if we should labor more diligently and bring many souls unto Him,
how much greater will be our joy.”

We may sometimes be
tempted to say, ‘Will my influence make any difference? I am just one. Will my
service affect the work that dramatically?’ I testify to you that it will. You
will never be able to measure your influence for good.

Do
not underestimate your worth, power, ability and responsibility to bring others
unto Christ. You have been chosen to come forth at this time to go forth and
serve in the Lord’s harvest field. God knows you can do it, and without your
help, God’s children will not have the opportunity to come unto him and feel of
his love.

Brothers and sisters,
the reason why I want to serve a mission is a simple one- I want to share with
my brothers and sisters in the Philippines that they have a wonderful Father in
heaven to cares for them, blesses them, and loves them
unconditionally. No matter their different walks of life, He loves them and
stands with his arms open, desiring for them to come unto Him.

I love my Heavenly
Father with all my heart, and I pray that as I embark on this worthwhile
journey, I will be able to share this love I feel from the Savior with all I
come in contact with. I know God lives, I know he loves me, and I know he loves
each and every one of you. I thank you for all of your loving support and
guidance, and I know I wouldn’t be the person I am today without all of your
amazing examples. I’m excited to serve a mission, and I’m excited to grow
closer to the Lord. I love all of you so very much, and I say these things in
the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.